The RMT has ‘renewed its call for secondary protection to prevent death and injury by rail runaways after yet another potentially fatal incident late last month’.
The union said the incident, in which a road-rail dumper truck ‘ran free for a quarter of a mile before hitting buffers at Bradford Interchange station on March 25, has echoes of the tragedy at Tebay in February 2004, in which four RMT members were killed by a runaway trolley’.
An investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch is under way.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said:
“Eight years after four of our members were killed at Tebay the relentless stream of runaways has still not stopped, and it is time that the secondary protection we are seeking was put in place.
“We are supposed to be working with Network Rail to develop a suitable mechanism but progress is still painfully slow and Network Rail is not treating this issue with the urgency it deserves.”
A Network Rail spokesman said:
“Network Rail is working to deliver solutions aimed at reducing the risk posed by runaway vehicles and the RMT is actively involved in this activity.
“In order to reduce the risk, we are currently funding a £5m programme to fit additional disc brakes to over 300 road rail vehicles.
“Our long-term strategy includes the development of a new generation of road rail vehicles designed specifically for railway use.”
Whose fault is it that runaways occur though? Wouldnt be your members would it Bob? Of course not. Its the management. 😛